Creamy Peanut Butter

Published March 2011

How we tested

Selecting a jar of peanut butter never used to be complicated. Once you aligned yourself with either the creamy or the crunchy camp, you had two basic choices: conventional peanut butters made with hydrogenated oil and other additives, or the barely processed versions containing just nuts and maybe a pinch of salt. In the past, we’ve been firm believers in the conventional kind. As much as we might like the idea of a healthier spread made only with ground-up nuts, we’ve found that these generally offer the texture of Spackle and a taste sorely in need of added salt and sweeteners—and yes, hydrogenated fat. (Let’s be clear: Hydrogenated fat is not the same as partially hydrogenated fat, a trans fat that we all want to avoid.)

But these days it seems as though manufacturers have literally gone nuts, cramming supermarket shelves with not only the familiar options, but also everything else they can think of to increase market share. You’ll find organic varieties; reduced-fat specimens; sea-salt, no-salt, and low-salt versions; and omega 3–enriched spreads—not to mention “no-stir,” “honey-roasted,” and “whipped” styles. From our vantage point, the most intriguing development has been the proliferation of peanut butters now declaring themselves “natural.” Would these spreads offer a taste and texture good enough to lure us away from the “unnatural” conventional butters made with hydrogenated oil?

To answer that question, we went to the supermarket and came home with a staggering number of peanut butters—15 creamy spreads and 13 crunchy ones. We separated out the crunchy butters for their own tasting and then proceeded to whittle the creamy ones down to a more manageable number in a series of preliminary tasting rounds. The final lineup boasted four representatives from the conventional category, five brands with “natural” in their names, and one organic style.

The Fine Print

Before dipping in our spoons, we spun the jars around to examine their contents. We were immediately disabused of any notion that “natural” on the label meant bare-bones peanuts. Only one jar contained just peanuts (and less than 1 percent salt). The other four included some of the same additives found in conventional butters, including sweeteners and salt, as well as molasses and even flax seed oil. But instead of hydrogenated fat, they contained palm oil.

The prevalence of palm oil in the so-called natural butters (the organic brand contained it, too) made us curious, so we did a little research. It turns out that because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate the term “natural,” manufacturers can literally put almost anything in the jar and still use that label. It also turns out that in terms of saturated fat, palm oil is as much of a culprit as hydrogenated oil. Palm oil, in fact, is made up of about 55 percent saturated fat. When we examined their nutrition labels again, we found that most of the “natural” peanut butters made with this oil contained at least 3 grams of saturated fat per serving—the same amount as conventional spreads made with hydrogenated oil. Bottom line: If a “natural” peanut butter has palm oil in it, it probably doesn’t belong in the health food aisle any more than a conventional peanut butter does. (It’s worth noting that a pure peanut butter may not be all that deserving of a spot there either. The closest thing to an additive-free spread in our lineup contains 2.5 grams of saturated fat per serving.)

Sticking Points

But the real question before us was how these palm-oil products would taste—and spread—compared with other brands. So we rallied our tasters to sample the peanut butters straight up in a blind tasting; peanut butter cookies and spicy satay sauce would follow later. After everyone put down their spoons, we had one key finding: While some tasters were staunchly in favor of a particular flavor profile—some preferred a sweeter peanut butter, others liked a good hit of salt, and many voted in favor of products that struck a good balance between the two—the bottom line was all about texture. As they had in the past, the creamiest, most spreadable peanut butters—even those with less-than-robust peanut flavor—jumped to the top of the chart. To our surprise, these included not only the conventional butters but a couple of the “natural” styles as well.

At the same time, samples that were gritty and sludgy, dribbly and goopy, or too sticky were panned, no matter how nutty or well rounded they tasted.

How much would creaminess and peanut flavor matter once the samples were baked into cookies and mixed into satay sauce? Turns out texture was again the number-one factor: Dry, gritty peanut butters made for predictably dry, gritty cookies. And the sauces they made? Unpalatably “stiff” and “pasty.” Meanwhile, creamier samples, particularly the two top-ranking “natural” brands from the plain tasting, turned out cookies with “nice softness” and “satisfying chew,” along with sauces with such good consistency that tasters were happy to “eat them by the spoonful.”

That said, one brand, whose “runny,” “mouth-coating” texture stranded it near the bottom rungs in the plain tasting, actually took bronze in the cookie round, where its more fluid composition lent moisture to the dough and turned out “sturdy” yet “pleasantly soft” cookies. Furthermore, the satay sauce brought out a flaw in the winner of our plain tasting—namely that its somewhat “muted” peanut flavor became even more faded in the presence of spicy ingredients and tart lime juice.

Tried and (Still) True

When we tallied our final results, nobody was especially surprised by the overall champ. As it had when we evaluated peanut butters in both 2001 and 2006, a regular old hydrogenated oil–based spread took top honors for a supremely “smooth,” “creamy” texture that even made up for what a few tasters deemed a “slightly weak” nutty flavor. Nor were we particularly stunned when the only truly additive-free peanut butter in the bunch (not counting its tiny bit of salt) fell to the bottom of the rankings due to a texture that tasters deemed “inedible” and, when baked into cookies, as intractable as a “hockey puck.”

What did surprise us, however, was that a very close runner-up was one of two palm oil–based peanut butters to make the “recommended” list. Like our winner, it garnered praise for a “wonderfully” smooth texture. Tasters also praised its “dark-roast-y” flavor, which we attribute in part to the inclusion of molasses, an ingredient common to three out of our five favorite peanut butters (and absent in four of the five lower-ranking contenders). Like the other favored palm-oil brand, it’s not actually a peanut butter but a “spread.” By FDA regulations, if a product has less than 90 percent peanuts and more than 55 percent fat, it must be labeled a “spread.” Nomenclature aside, the extra fat in this brand may have contributed to a creaminess on a par with the test kitchen favorite, even in the absence of hydrogenated fat.

Maybe someday manufacturers will figure out a way to make an übercreamy, full-flavored peanut butter with just the nuts. In the meantime, we’ll be making our PB&Js with our longtime favorite.

Methodology

How do we choose which products to test?

We always try to choose nationally available products that are top sellers in their category based on sales figures compiled by SymphonyIRI Group, Inc., a Chicago-based market research firm that tracks supermarket sales. We want people to be able to get the products we review. We try to include large regional brands, but the trouble is that people who don’t live in that region can’t always get the products. (If it’s something that can be mail-ordered we’re more likely to include it.) For the same reason we don’t include house brands or store-specific brands, because people who don’t have access to that store are out of luck.

The “Best” Product

Many readers pointed out that they do not consider foods with added salt, sugars, or hydrogenated oils to be the “best” in any sense. While concern about nutrition and health is understandable, Cook’s energies are devoted to recipe development. Our goal is to develop “the best recipe” in terms of flavor and execution. Only Cook’s provides this in-depth approach to recipes and we hope that you find our insight into the recipe development process uniquely valuable.

How did we do our peanut butter tasting?

Our tasting panel, which consisted of 21 Cook’s Illustrated staff members, did four blind tastings. In the first two tastings the peanut butters were pure, plain peanut butter. The peanut butters were tasted as they are sold, and the oil on natural peanut butters was mixed in before it was portioned out and tasted. Our tasters were asked to rate the peanut butter in terms of peanut flavor, sweetness, saltiness, texture, and overall preference. The panel later completed two more tastings, the first was for peanut butter cookies and the second was for a spicy satay sauce. While taste is very personal thing and subjective, we do try to make our tastings as impartial as possible.

Hydrogenated Oil

Hydrogenated fat was mentioned several times in the article. Hydrogenated fat is a fat that hydrogen has been added to in order to increase both physical stability and shelf life. Fats that are naturally hydrogenated are solid at room temperature and include many animal fats (such as butter or lard) and some plant fats (such as palm oil). Artificially hydrogenated oils are created through heating or catalysts. While all trans fats are hydrogenated, not all hydrogenated oils are trans fats. In the US all products are required to declare any trans fat content on their label.

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The Results

Winner

Recommended

Skippy Peanut Butter

In a contest that hinged on texture, tasters thought this "smooth, "creamy" sample was "swell" and gave it top honors, both plain and baked into cookies. Its rave reviews even compensated for a slightly "weak" nut flavor that didn't come through as well as that of other brands in the pungent satay sauce.

$2.39 for 16.3-oz. jar (15 cents per oz.)*

Buy Now

Recommended

Jif Natural Peanut Butter Spread

The big favorite in satay sauce, this peanut butter's "dark, roasted flavor"—helped by the addition of molasses—stood out particularly well against the other heady ingredients, and it made cookies with "nice sweet-salty balance." Plus, as the top-rated palm oil-based sample, it was "creamy," "thick," and better emulsified than other "natural" contenders.

Buy Now

$2.29 for 18-oz. jar (13 cents per oz.)*

Reese's Peanut Butter

This is what peanut butter should be like, " declared one happy taster, noting specifically this product's "good," "thick" texture and "powerful peanut flavor." In satay sauce, however, some tasters felt that heavier body made for a "pasty" end result.

$2.59 for 18-oz. jar (14 cents per oz.)*

Skippy Natural Peanut Butter Spread

The only other palm oil-based peanut butter to make the "recommended" cut, this contender had a "looser" texture than its winning sibling but still won fans for being "super-smooth." Tasters thought it made an especially "well-balanced," "complex" peanut sauce.

$2.39 for 15-oz. jar (16 cents per oz.)*

Recommended with Reservations

Peanut Butter & Co. No-Stir Natural Smooth Operator

Though it says "no-stir" on the label, this "stiff" palm-oil enriched peanut butter was "weeping oil" and came across as "greasy" to some tasters. However, it turned out a respectable batch of cookies—"chewy in the center, crisp and short at the edge"—and made "perfectly good" satay sauce.

$4.49 for 18-oz. jar (25 cents per oz.)*

Maranatha Organic No Stir Peanut Butter

On the one hand, this organic peanut butter produced cookies that were "soft and sturdy" yet "moist," with "knockout peanut flavor." On the other hand, eating it straight from the jar was nearly impossible; its "loose," "liquid-y," and "dribbly" consistency had one taster wonder if it was "peanut soup."

$5.69 for 16-oz. jar (36 cents per oz.)*

Not Recommended

Smart Balance All Natural Rich Roast Peanut Butter

Besides being unpalatably "tacky" and "sludgy," this "natural" peanut butter suffered from an awful "fishy" flavor with a "weird acidic aftertaste" that tasters noted in all three applications. Our best guess as to the culprit? The inclusion of flax seed oil, an unsaturated fat that's highly susceptible to rancidity.

$3.59 for 16-oz. jar (22 cents per oz.)*

Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter

With its only additive a negligible amount of salt, the only truly natural peanut butter in the lineup elicited comments ranging from mild dissatisfaction ("needs enhancement with salt and sugar") to outright disgust ("slithery," "chalky," "inedible"). Cookies were "dry and crumbly" with a "hockey puck" texture, and the satay sauce was "stiff," "gritty," and "gloopy."

$2.69 for 16-oz. jar (17 cents per oz.)*

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